“Of Gods and Angles”

I liked this episode. Yes, a lot of the cube & sphere jokes were very obvious and predictable, and the episode's entire resolution was completely predictable. But that kind of worked in the episode's favor I feel. We knew what to expect, so we could just relax and wait for it to play out against the Mariner/Ensign Demigod drama. Which was handled well, I thought.

Nitpickingly, I also could have done without the poop joke, and wouldn't Dr. T'ana have taken the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm? Also Boimler's nickname is kind of a lazy joke. I would have rather had a clever nickname.

I got one good laugh out of the episode, which was the cubes and spheres in the gym lifting weights. That's one more good laugh than I've gotten otherwise this season, though I'm not terribly bothered by if an episode makes me laugh or not so long as I am entertained.

One of the background Starfleet officers was drawn as wearing a hijab. This stood out to me and I found it a bit jarring, and I didn't initially understand why I found it so incongruous as to stand out. After reflecting on it, I think it is weirdly both Trekian and non-Trekian in spirit to have a Starfleet officer in a hijab. It is Trekian in spirit in that, if a Stafleet officer wanted to wear a hijab with her uniform, Starfleet would probably grant her dispensation to do so. There are enough examples of Starfleet doing it with the cultural affectations of other races. But it is anti-Trekian in that Trek's vision of the humanity of the future is strongly humanist. Such present day religious and cultural expressions have long been left behind by the humanity of the 24th century; there's interest in these sorts of things still but it is at a certain remove. In short, it's not likely to be enough a part of the identity of a 24th century human that she would feel so strongly about it as to want to wear one. I believe that's the spirit of Trek's vision of the future.

But there's always some weird lost colony of humans somewhere, isn't there. Those do tend to pop up with some frequency. Ha!

Another run-of-the-mill effort. Man, it's so disappointing to see the show going out on a streak of absolute mediocrity!

I had a higher laugh count than Jeffrey's Tube above, entirely due to Dr T'ana, who I think is firmly my favourite character on the show by this point. She's the kind of character that would only work properly in a cartoon, and when she savagely wrecked Boimler I was *cackling*.

Everything else was par for the course. Not terrible, but not worth analysing in any depth either. I have thoughts about how the show's comedic deficiencies are structural problems, but I'll think I'll save them for my series finale comments.

I found this episode a bit funnier than the season to date. Still, I don't think it can't be argued the series is running out of steam, and out of ideas. There's little here we haven't seen before.

The A-plot involving Mariner was ... fine. The whole idea of peace talks between the cubes and the spheres was exactly the kind of classic Trek plot device turned up to absurdity in the way that Lower Decks often does.

The problem was Ensign Olly (sp?). In concept, the idea of having a fresh ensign who's a total fuckup who Mariner needs to mentor, ultimately realizing that they aren't that similar was fine. However, in practice I didn't think it worked. Much of the reason is structural. First, this is the second episode in a row where a new guest character is thrown in to follow Mariner around and generate conflict. Second, we know there's only four episodes left, so the pointed introduction of a new crew member feels like a waste here. I feel like with a bit of tweaking they could have had this work as a Mariner/T'Lyn episode or something, which would give a fan favorite more development. But with a throwaway guest, I'm just left feeling like it was a time waster.

I liked the B plot stuff with Boimler a bit more. Yeah, he's acting a bit OOC for this point in his development by being such an idiot, but the stuff with Doctor T'ana was some of the best comedy of this season. I also liked that he (and apparently Rutherford) ended the episode learning the wrong lesson.

I was entertained enough, but I'm really wondering when the season will belt out some bangers. Or if it will even bother. Seems willing to coast on acceptable.

@ Jeffrey's Tube,

There was previously a hijab in I Excretus in Season 2. I didn't notice it here, but I presume it's the same woman?

What I have noticed recently is guest characters are being drawn curvier. Both last week with the commander on Starbase 80, and this week with Ensign Olly. Up until this point, I had presumed the "beanpole" status of the crew was meant to just be the art style, but with more normal looking women, I guess we're just supposed to think it's coincidence that all the women on the main cast have the same body type.

@Jeffrey's Tube, is it really much different from any of Chakotay's religious practices? Other than being real, that is.

@Jeffrey's Tube. Fair enough, I suppose, but this show also has a Sikh crewmember who wears a turban -- a character who was introduced a long time ago and also happens to appear in this very episode.

Star Trek does have broadly humanistic values, but as for Starfleet as an organization... it makes more sense to see it as a cultural melting pot. We've seen *tons* of religious symbology over the decades, including a crewmember with a bindi in the original series ("That Which Survives").

Two and a half stars. Kinda fun, diverting, and innocuous Lower Deckery here. So lots of glib interactions and superficial character development mixed with obscure callbacks (I missed the Zeus connection at first and had to Google Ensign Olly because the reference went by so fast) that are mildly diverting. While not terribly memorable, I enjoyed the self-aware reduction of two warring species traveling on the ship to a peace conference—a trope particularly overused in TNG with great blandness—sort of amusing. Ultimately, it’s no Journey to Babel, but it’s a pleasant time waster.

@ Tiran

I would say that Chakotay's traditions weren't really presented as being religious, per se, and that his wearing of the tattoo was presented as something unusual, something that marked him out as a bit of rebel. Something from the original conception of the character when he was supposed to be a swinging Maquis battle captain who quit Starfleet because he rebelled against the way they did things, whereas what the character actually developed into was Janeway's puppy dog. Wasn't there a whole episode about how he got the tattoo from an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon (or some Amazon like planet) or something like that? I seem to recall that but not the specifics. Chakotay episodes were never particularly memorable, ha.

@ Karl, @ Gilbertron

I guess there have been more examples than I've realized and noticed. For some reason this time it stood out to me when I guess in the past it's blended into the background more. Fair enough.

Ensign Olly was a clear reference to “Who mourns for Adonais?” – which is funny because it’s one of TOS’s early and silly installments. The Sphere-Cube plot was cute and made for some fun animation choices (the large energy-charged cube looked conspicuously like a Borg ship). I suppose this plot works as it takes a known Trek plot mechanic, i.e., Mariner encourages godly powered alien Olly to use her species powers to help. But unexpectedly, Olly’s engineering skills were really what the Cerritos needed to handle the Sphere-Cube quarrel. It's a bit of a flip on the plot of "True Q", if you think about it.

The B-plot where Boimler goofs his way into becoming Dr. T’Ana’s friend almost completely backfires on him, except that it works. What’s clever about this is that T’Ana gets the better deal; she mauls the poor lad to death and uses him as a medical case study (will the procedure to remove lightning bolts be applicable elsewhere?). One only wonders if Boimler will benefit at all from his new nickname.

2.5 stars. Light-weight fun yet I’m hoping for something more substantial, possibly concerning the rift, in the near future.

what a joke

this is the worst nu-trek I've ever seen and normally i enjoy this show somewhat

Maybe the show being totally out of gas and floundering is an extended reference to TNG's 7th season?

I expected Boim's nickname would be "Flash," though "Bolt" could have worked too, and either would have been more clever than just using a curse word.

It feels a bit emblematic of this season, which is a disappointment. I was previously excited each week when the new episodes came out, but now I forget for days (or weeks) at a time.

I really hope they can recover that old magic for the final few episodes.

[[In short, it's not likely to be enough a part of the identity of a 24th century human that she would feel so strongly about it as to want to wear one. I believe that's the spirit of Trek's vision of the future.]]

It's a very simple bit of questioning, "Do we believe that Star Trek is actually accepting of other cultures or do we believe that humanity evolving means that humanism has destroyed all other cultures?"

Because you can't have it both ways.